- Jan 4 Tristan Gommendy, French racing driver, born in Le Chesnay, Yvelines
- Jan 5 Ronnie O'Brien, Irish footballer, born in Bray, County Wicklow
- Jan 8 Adrian Mutu, Romanian footballer, born in Călinești, Romania
- Jan 8 Seol Ki-hyeon, South Korean footballer, born in Jeongseon County, South Korea
- Jan 8 Stipe Pletikosa, Croatian footballer, born in Split, Croatia
- Jan 12 Grzegorz Rasiak, Polish footballer, born in Szczecin, Poland
- Jan 12 Jenny Schmidgall, American ice hockey forward (USA, Olympics 1998), born in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Drew Brees (45 years old)
Jan 15 American football quarterback (Super Bowl MVP 2009, New Orleans Saints; 13 x Pro Bowl; 7 × NFL passing yards leader), born in Austin, Texas
- Jan 15 Martin Petrov, Bulgarian soccer winger (90 caps; Servette, VfL Wolfsburg, Atlético Madrid, Manchester City, Bolton Wanderers), born in Vratsa, Bulgaria
- Jan 16 Brenden Morrow, Canadian ice hockey player, born in Carlyle, Canada
- Jan 16 Jason Ward, Canadian ice hockey player, born in Chapleau, Canada
- Jan 16 Jimmy Walker, American golfer (PGA C'ship 2016), born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Jan 18 Brian Gionta, American NHL ice hockey player, 2001-18 (New Jersey Devils, Montreal Canadiens, and 2 other teams), born in Rochester, New York
- Jan 18 Kenyatta Jones, American NFL and arena football player (New England Patriots and 3 other teams, born in Gainesville, Florida (d. 2018)
- Jan 18 Paulo Ferreira, Portuguese footballer, born in Cascais, Portugal
- Jan 19 Josu Sarriegi, Spanish football player, born in Lazkao, Spain
- Jan 19 Svetlana Khorkina, Russian gymnast, born in Belgorod, Russia
Brian O'Driscoll (45 years old)
Jan 21 Irish rugby union player (Ireland, British & Irish Lions), born in Dublin, Ireland
- Jan 21 Byung-Hyun Kim, Korean baseball player
- Jan 23 Juan Rincón, Venezuelan baseball player, born in Maracaibo, Venezuela
- Jan 23 Larry Hughes, American basketball player, born in St. Louis, Missouri
- Jan 27 Daniel Vettori, New Zealand cricketer
- Jan 27 Liesbet Van Breedam, Belgian beach volleyball player
- Jan 27 Rodrigo Ribeiro, Brazilian racing driver, born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Jan 28 Ali Boulala, Swedish skateboarder, born in Stockholm, Sweden
- Jan 30 Karen Smith, Australian field hockey midfielder (World Cup gold 1998; Champions Trophy gold 1997, 99, 2003; Commonwealth Games gold 2006), born in Toowoomba, Australia
About January 1979
How Old? 45 years old
Generation: Generation X
Leap Year: No
Chinese Zodiac: Horse (Jan 1 - Jan 27), Goat/Sheep (Jan 28 - Jan 31)
Star Signs: Capricorn (Dec 22 - Jan 19), Aquarius (Jan 20 - Feb 18)
Baseball Players
Basketball Stars
Boxers
Footballers
NFL Stars
Tennis Champions